GES directs headteachers to open accounts for schools

Tema (Greater Accra), 23 Nov , 1998- The Ghana Education Service (GES) has directed headteachers in basic and junior secondary schools (JSS) to open bank accounts to make it easy for school monies to be audited. Mrs Hanna Amoah, Tema municipal director of the GES, said at a meeting with headteachers in Tema today, that all authorised levies paid by pupils should first be sent to the district education offices which will issue cheques for payment into their school accounts. She said accountable imprest for headteachers would be sent to the schools through their banks, adding that the system which allowed headteachers to collect cash for their imprests had been stopped. Mrs Amoah explained that the signatories for every school cheque should include the chairman of the school management committee (SMC), a member of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and the headteacher, saying any two could sign the cheque for cash withdrawals. The arrangement will also make the SMC and PTA which are managing community schools with the headteachers to know how school monies are used. Mrs Amoah said headteachers should be concerned about helping to provide quality education for their pupils, stressing: "we must find out the cause of poor results in our schools so that we can remedy them".